Of Noses Smudged With Ink
by clearblueskies
Summary: Jill Pole has a crush on someone and Eustace isn't too happy about it...


**A/N: Might be slightly OOC... I've never written these characters before. :/**

**OF NOSES SMUDGED WITH INK:**

Jill Pole sighed in despair as she carried on scrubbing her face in her bathroom. On her nose, was a smudge of ink. You see, she had been writing the final exam, and her pen stopped working; she broke the golden rule-she shook her ink pen, hard. And that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that she hadn't even noticed it until she had come inside her dormitory.

She thought it was awfully mean of Eustace not to have mentioned it, considering that she had spent the rest of the day with him. Speaking of which, he was supposed to pick her up for their excursion into town in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Someone knocked on the door.

"Is that you, Scrubb?"

"Yes. May I come in?"

"Ok." Jill sighed. She wasn't going to get the ink off her nose anytime soon.

The corners of his mouth turned slightly upwards as he saw her.

The sight just... infuriated Jill, ugh! What was his problem?

Hands on hips, she glared at him.

"What?"He asked, slightly defensive.

"Why didn't you tell me that I had ink on my nose?" Eustace looked rather taken aback.

"I- I didn't think it would matter."

"Of course it does! What if Manning has seen me like this?"

"Who?"

"Oliver Manning. You know-" she whispered this bit- "the handsome blonde on the cricket team whom I like?"

Scrubb looked as if someone had punched him in the gut. He had this funny feeling in his stomach- could you call it jealousy?

"Manning's an idiot."

"And why would you say that?"

"I-"

"Yes?"

"He's so much older!"

"He is _one year _above us, Scrubb."

"Well, fine, let's just leave, can we? You need stamps?"

Jill sighed. "Yes, and some other things as well. I wish you hadn't come to call me yourself though, I'm going to be teased all night."

"Why?"

"Gosh, Scrubb, don't you know?" She grinned at him good-naturedly. "They think that you fancy me or something. It's kind of annoying."

Eustace turned slightly pink. "Let's go."

"Okay!"

They walk down the hallway, Eustace a little behind Jill, head down, hands shoved in his pockets. In his head, he was swearing at the silly giggling girls who were glancing at him and Jill. He glared at one small girl whispering to her best friend, "...and Flynn told me that they've _kissed!_" It had no effect whatsoever, except for making them giggle harder.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Scrubb, did you hear a word I said?" Jill asked, she walked back towards the school with Eustace.

"What? Oh, sorry... something about geography homework?"

"_No_. That was half an hour ago! Honestly, Eustace, what were you thinking about that made you space out like that?"

Eustace blushed. " Nothing." _You_. "Wait. I need to tell you something."

"What?" Jull replied curiously.

"I- well, remember Narnia?"

"..."

"Okay, okay, of course you do. Well I-"

"You what, Scrubb?"

"I have no idea how to say this- I mean I even wrote to _Edmund_. _Edmund_! That is how desperate I was! Gosh, if only I could talk to old Puddlegum about all of this, he'd take my head out of the clouds."

"Eustace Clarence Scrubb-"

"_SHHHH! Not the full name! People can hear us!"_

"Scrubb. Whatever this is you're panicking about, you need to _calm down_, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Sorry. Pole, I just wanted to say that-"

"_Oh Gosh."_

"What?"

"Manning. _He' walking towards us!"_

"Well, who bloody cares? And stop talking in italics. It's begging to annoy me."

"What do you have against Manning?"

"_Nothing_. Other than the fact that he's annoying, stupid, ugly-" A nasty sneer was fixed on Eustace's face as he glared at the angry girl in front of him.

"Whatever has gotten into you today Scrubb? You don't listen to a _word _ I say all day, you are _terribly _nasty about Manning, you have this strange secret that you _refuse _ to tell me without beating around the bush, I am _sick _of you!" Jill's face was turning red, and there was a strange glint in her eye.

She quickly wiped her face and her expression changed as the handsome blonde Manning walked towards her. She put on her best, most flirtatious smile. " Hello! We were just talking about you!"

"Oh, hey! Listen, I just wanted to tell you something pretty important."

"Yes?" She asked, a little breathless.

"No yelling in the hall, okay, if you need to talk, go do it outside, okay? Also... you have some nose on your ink. I think you should wipe it off fast, or else someone you fancy will see you like this or something!"

"Thank you. It was nice of you to tell me." Her voice was blank, but her face had a fixed smile.

"No problem, kid! It's my duty as prefect!" Turning, around, the tall boy jogged towards two young boys running towards the music room. Eustace stared at the back of Jill's head, and then she slowly revolved to face him.

"Well, that went well." She said, her smile shaky.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Eustace. I guess... I was a little stupid, huh?"

"Hey." He pulled her into a hug and patted her back. She pressed her face into his chest and he rubbed circles on her back, wishing the moment would last forever. The butterflies in his stomach seemed to have turned into large jellyfish. "Let's go outside, okay?"

Jill sniffed and withdrew, her face a little pink. His faced matched hers.

As they sat down on the grass and gazed at the setting sun, her hand reached out and found his. They sat like that for a while, enjoying each other's company.

Ten minutes later, they were sent in by the very same Mr. Manning they had encountered earlier. Jill didn't seem to mind, though.

They paused in the corridor for a minute, and with no one around he gave her a small peck on the cheek.

It was _only a small peck on the cheek_! And that is the complete truth. Yes sir, it is. It's not like they moved close and bumped their noses together by mistake and laughed and then snogged and snogged some more or anything. Nope. Just a little peck on the cheek.

Half an hour later as Eustace walked Jill to her room, they ran into her friend..."Oh, hello you're back! You're just in time for dinner. Hurry up or you'll be late! Oh, and Scrubb?"

"Yes?"

"You have ink on your nose."

**Sorry for the weird writing and OOCness. :) Reviews?**


End file.
